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PRESENTED BY 



A SOCIAL SURVEY of 
the WASHINGTON 
STREET DISTRICT 
of NEW YORK CITY 




INSTITUTED AND CONDUCTED BY 

TRINITY CHURCH MEN'S COMMITTEE 

OCTOBER, 1914 



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TRINITY CHURCH MEN'S COMMITTEE 



Rev. William T. Manning, S. T. D;, Chairman. 

Rev. John Mockridge, D. D., V ice-Chairman. 

Henry L. Hobart, Treasurer. 

Richard M. Coit, Secretary. 

P. Barton Myers, Jr., Social Service Secretary. 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
George W. Burleigh, Chairman. 



Sir Courtenay Bennett John M. Glenn 



Tappen Bowne 
Samuel A. Chapin 
John H. Cole 
Wilmot T. Cox 
A. Lawrence Dickie 
Pendleton Dudley 



G. D. L. Harison 
Robert G. Hone 
William T. Innes 
Francis T. King 
George W. Kirke 
Thomas Nash 



George B. Ogden 
John C. O'Conor 
George K. Ross 
J. Rutherford Stewart 
John R. Strong 
David C. Townsend 
John B. Walker, M. D. 



ill 



CONTRIBUTORS 



Joseph S. Auerbach 
Sir Courtenay Bennett 
C. Ledyard Blair 
Tappen Bowne 
William Allen Butler 
George W. Burleigh 
Samuel A. Chapin 
Henry Clews 
John H. Cole 
Wilmot T. Cox 
Edward C. Delafield 
William C. Demorest 
A. Lawrence Dickie 
Cleveland H. Dodge 
Pendleton Dudley 
John M. Glenn 
G. D. L. Harison 
Henry L. Hobart 
Robert G. Hone 
William T. Innes 
Francis T. King 
George Wistar Kirke 
Rev. Dr. W. T. Manning 
Alfred E. Marling 
Edwin S. Marston 
Rev. Dr. John Mockridge 
Thomas Nash 



John C. O'Conor 

George B. Ogden 

William C. Osborn 

Henry Parish, Jr. 

Alton B. Parker 

Dallas B. Pratt 

M. Taylor Pyne 

M. Taylor Pyne, Jr. 

Percy R. Pyne 

Percy R. Pyne, 2nd 

T. J. Oakley Rhinelander 

J. VanVechten Olcott 

Philip Rhinelander 

John S. Rogers 

George K. Ross 

Archibald D. Russell 

James R. Sheffield 

James Speyer 

J. Rutherford Stewart 

John R. Strong 

Henry R. Taylor 

Henry N. fifft 

David C. Townsend 

Trinity Church Rector's Fund 

Dr. John B. Walker 

George T. Wilson 

Beekman Winthrop 



IV 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Frontispiece ii 

Trinity Church Men's Committee Hi 

Contributors iv 

List of illustrations vii 

List of diagrams vii 

List of tables viii 

Foreword , ix 

Introduction xiii 

Map of district xiv 

CHAPTER 

I. Housing 1 

Yard toilets 3 

Hall sinks 5 

Rear tenements 7 

Vertical ladder fire escapes 7 

General sanitary conditions 8 

Room overcrowding 8 

Lodging houses 12 

Recommendations 12 

II. Immigration IS 

National groups 15 

Census 1910 IS 

Austro-Hungarians 18 

Syrians 19 

Irish 19 

Transportation facilities 22 

Present situation 25 

Education 26 

Civics for aliens 27 

Children 27 

Industrial training and vocational guidance 28 

III. Recreation 29 

Playgrounds 29 

Floating baths 33 

Theatre 34 

Social centre 34 

IV. Industrial Conditions 36 

Casual employment < 37 

Woman's work 39 

Factories 40 

V 



VI 

CHAPTER PAGE 

V. Child Welfare 42 

School attendance 42 

Classes 44 

VI. Delinquency 46 

Adults . 46 

Saloons 48 

Dance halls 49 

VII. Health 51 

New York Milk Committee 52 

Tuberculosis 55 

Contagious diseases 59 

Appendix 60 

Social Histories of 818 Families Compiled and Tabulated 
from the records of Washington Street Health Centre, 
August 1, 1914. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Trinity Church iv 

Map of District x 

Rear of Washington Street, looking north 2 

Washington Street yard toilets 3 

Refuse thrown from windows 5 

Hall sink 6 

Filthy halls and stairs 7 

One-room apartment 9 

Stairs in Washington Street house 13 

Future citizens arriving at Ellis Island 17 

Immigrants Arriving at Barge Office 21 

Immigrant in his adopted country 23 

Battery Park, a natural playground 30 

Along the docks 31 

"Penny a Ride," "One o'Cat" 33 

"A Sly Game of Crap," "Pitching Pennies" 33 

A Floating Bath at the Battery, "The Movies" 34 

Mothers at the Down Town Nursery '. 37 

"Dispossessed" 38 

Syrian peddlers 40 

A little mother 42 

"A Scrap" 45 

Interpreters at the Health Centre 52 

Health Centre patients 55 

Hall sinks spread disease 56 



LIST OF DIAGRAMS 

PAGE 

Map of District xiv 

"Flights up" families using yard toilets 4 

Rooms per family 10 

Nationality 16 

Nativity 16 

Woman's work 39 

Infant death rate comparison 53 

Tuberculosis cases i:: district , 57 



vn 



LIST OF TABLES 

TABLE PAGE 

I. Rooms per dwelling in relation to number of occupants 11 

II. Nativity, parentage and color statistics 15 

III. Country of birth or parentage 17 

IV. Speech classification 18 

V. Number of immigrants handled by immigrant homes etc., April 

and May, 1914 24 

VI. School census figures 43 

VII. Truancy statistics 43 

VIII. Population and percentage of arrests 46 

IX. Offences committed 1913 47 

X. Ages of offenders 48 

XI. Juvenile Court offenses 1913 50 

XII. Infant mortality statistics 1910-1914 51 

XIII. Summary tuberculosis cases 58 

XIV. Contagious diseases 59 

XV. Social history of 818 families — Appendix , 60 

a. Rooms per dwelling in relation to occupants 61 

b. Toilet facilities in relation to number of families and number of 

persons per family using same 61 

c. Income of families in relation to size of family 62 

d. Rentals per month in relation to size of dwellings 63 

e. Occupation of mother in relation to regularity of employment. .... 64 

f. Conjugal condition of mothers 64 

g. Nationality 65 

h. Relation of fathers' use of alcohol to mothers' use 65 

i. Occupation of father in relation to regularity of home and other 

employment 66 

k. Relation of nationalities of parents to duration of residence in 

the United States 67 



Vlll 



FOREWORD. 

Early in the year nineteen fourteen, some of the laymen of 
Trinity Church met to consider the possibility of holding a series 
of lectures on the New Testament at five o 'clock in the afternoon 
on certain week days in the Chapel of All Saints, adjoining Trin- 
ity Church. The subject was favorably received and met with 
the hearty approval and enthusiastic co-operation of our Rector, 
The Rev. Dr. Manning, who authorized the formation of a Trin- 
ity Church Lectures Committee under whose auspices the lectures 
were delivered. 

Frequent meetings for conference and to receive reports were 
necessary and the Committee soon realized, as did the Rector 
and the Vicar, Dr. Mockridge, that an organization of the lay- 
men of Trinity Church, that would be simple in form and elastic 
in character, could be of service to the Church. The mere fact 
of having a body of lay members organized and ready to answer 
the call of their Rector or Vicar seemed sufficient in itself to 
justify its existence. A formal organization was soon accomplished 
and Trinity Church Lectures Committee became Trinity Church 
Men's Committee. To conduct the necessary details of opera- 
tion, the Rector appointed an Executive Committee. From time 
to time this Committee has met with the Clergy of the Church, 
and there has thus grown up a closer and more intimate asso- 
ciation between the laymen and the Clergy, as well as amongst 
the laymen themselves. 

In order to accomplish, through the Church, the much desired 
Social Welfare Service, it early was evident that definite lines of 
endeavor, well mapped out, must be established. It thus 
became necessary to ascertain the facts as to the social conditions 
of the neighborhood. This Social Survey is the result. 

The Committee has been particularly fortunate in having the 
services of Mr. P. Barton Myers, Jr., a Fellow of the New York 
School of Philanthropy, as its Social Service Secretary. It is 
indebted to him for the greater part of the work of the Survey. 
The gathering of the subject matter, its classification, tabulation 
and diagrammatic presentation is entirely his. 



IX 



The Committee is also deeply grateful to those friends who by 
contributing financial assistance have made the work possible. 
We thank especially those who are not members of Trinity Church 
who nevertheless have contributed because they realized the 
importance of the work and appreciated the power for good in 
the community of Trinity Church itself. 

The "Wall Street District" surely must be daily sensible of 
the great services that Trinity Church renders in affording spir- 
itual comfort and physical rest to many of its men and women. 
The twelve o'clock service each week day except Saturday and 
the recitals upon the great organ each Wednesday, not to men- 
tion the many other daily services conducted by Trinity Clergy, 
are the sources of much happiness and help to many of the 
people of the District. 

Trinity Church Men's Committee is now completely organized 
and conducts its work through five committees : An Executive 
Committee, a Committee of Religious Work, a Committee on 
Social Welfare, a Committee on Entertainment, and a Committee 
on Finance. The Committee feels that its formation has been 
fully justified by the work already done and especially by the 
Social Survey herewith published. It looks forward with eager 
expectation to the correction- and reform of many of the unfortu- 
nate conditions in 'the- district covered by its report, and hopes for 
the continued good will and prayers of its many friends and 
invites their earnest co-operation. 

We also wish to thank the following individuals who have 
given willingly of their time and experience to assist our Social 
Service Secretary with help and advice, and have also taken a 
keen interest in the work of the Committee: 

Miss Emily W. Dinwiddie, Special Assistant in charge of the 
social welfare of the tenants of the estate of Trinity Corporation ; 

Miss Madge D. Headley, Secretary of the Tenement House Com- 
mittee of the Charity Organization Society; 

Miss Esther B. Means, In Charge of the Down Town Relief 
Bureau of Trinity Church Association; 

Mrs. Marian K. Clarke, Chief Investigator of the Bureau of In- 
dustries and Immigration, Department of Labor, State of New 
York. 

Finally we wish to acknowledge our indebtedness to the social 
and government agencies enumerated below for the use of some 



XI 

of their records for reference, and we render our thanks for the 
willing assistance of many members of their working staffs. 
International Committee of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion 

Association of Tuberculosis Clinics 

New York Probation and Protective Association 

New York Child Labor Committee 

National Consumers League 

National Board of Censorship 

Boy Scouts of America 

Trinity Church Association 
The Mission House 

Down Town Relief Bureau ! 

Provident Dispensary 

Seamen's Church Institute 

Washington Street Health Centre 

Public School No. 29 

Russell Sage Foundation 

New York School of Philanthropy 

New York Milk Committee 

Committee of Fourteen ? 

Parks and Playgrounds Association 

Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor 

Charity Organization Society 
Tenement House Committee 
Committee on Prevention of Tuberculosis 
Committee on Criminal Courts 

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children 
United States, 

Department of Labor 

Immigration Service Ellis Island 
Department of Commerce 
Census Bureau 

New York State 

Department of Labor 

Bureau of Industries and Immigration 
State Board of Charities 



Xll 

New York City 

Tenement House Department 

Department of Health 

Division of Child Hygiene 

Bureau of Licenses 

Department of Parks 

Department of Public Works 

Department of Education 

Bureau of Charities, Borough of Brooklyn 

Joint Board of Sanitary Control 

Joint Application Bureau 

The People's Institute 

Committee on Amusement Resources for Working Girls 

American Brewers' Association 

American Society for Organizing Charity 

Babies' Welfare Association 

North American Civic League for Immigrants 

COMMITTEE ON SURVEY, 

George W. Burleigh, Chairman 

Samuel A. Chapin 

Richard M. Coit 

Wilmot T. Cox 

Henry L. Hobart 

Francis T. King 

George K. Ross 

John B. Walker, M. D. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The present survey is a study of the social problems of the sec- 
tion of New York which lies south of Liberty Street and west of 
Broadway, in which section Trinity Church is situated. 

Trinity Corporation owns no dwelling houses south of Vestry 
Street, hence the conditions described in the following report do 
not relate in any way to property owned or controlled by Trinity 
Parish. 

The purpose of the investigation is three-fold: 

(1) To discover what are the social problems of the district; 

(2) To establish, by statistics, their extent; 

(3) To suggest remedies where possible which may be carried 
out by this Committee, or to which the members of the Committee 
can feel that they may lend their support. 

The problems have been divided into seven groups, as fol- 
lows: Housing, Immigration, Recreation, Industrial Conditions, 
Child Welfare, Delinquency and Health. 

To supplement the study of social conditions, notice was also 
taken of the social agencies operating in the district and attempt- 
ing to meet its needs. In other words, the object of the survey 
is to determine the social assets and liabilities of the district. 



Xlll 



MAP OF DISTRICT 




CHAPTER I. 
HOUSING. 

The district under consideration is one of the curious eddies 
in the current of city life, which has not kept pace with its sur- 
roundings. In a section of the city usually thought of as made 
up of office buildings, warehouses and factories, we find a suc- 
cession of streets which are almost strictly residential. 

It is a strange fact that all of the lower west side is often 
believed to be a part of the great down town office district. To 
the passenger on a ferry boat, or the business man who goes 
straight to his office and straight home again, the existence of 
anything like east side "slums" to mar the view of the Hudson 
from his office, will seem impossible. Yet the slums are there. 

There are, in fact, south of Liberty Street and west of Broad- 
way, one hundred and forty-four tenements, housing sixty-four 
hundred persons. It is of the greatest importance to know under 
what conditions the people here are living, for on this depend 
some of the most vital problems of the district. Health, for 
instance, clearly reflects housing conditions. Houses in this dis- 
trict are, undoubtedly, the oldest in the city. Many of them 
were erected over one hundred years ago. For years, owners 
have held property here chiefly as a land investment, waiting 
for a time to build or sell, and naturally they have little interest 
in the old buildings, except to collect rents and to make as few 
repairs as possible. As a result, dwellings have gradually deteri- 
orated over a period of years, and it is not an exaggeration to 
say that houses south of Liberty Street, and west of Broadway 
represent some of the worst conditions in the City of New York. 

What the future of the tenement house is to be, is a matter of 
conjecture. From 1905 to 1910 the population increased 11%, 
which tends to substantiate the opinion held by many who know 
conditions intimately, that the district is destined to remain resi- 
dential for many years to come, if not permanently so. A study 
•of existing conditions is justified, therefore, both from the stand- 
point of present needs, and of plans for the future. 

1 



The district shares, in common with the rest of the city, free- 
dom from the school sink and privy vault, water supply of build- 
ings on each floor, fire egress and light and ventilation prescribed 
by law, and this is due solely to the work of the Tenement House 
Department within the past thirteen years. An inspector is 
constantly canvassing the district, and where violations of the 
law are found, they are reported to the Tenement House Depart- 
ment. 




The District Is Almost Walled In by Tall Office Buildings. 
Rear of Washington Street, Looking North. 

An inspection tour in company with the Tenement House In- 
spector, however, revealed many problems of a serious nature, 
which the department has no power to alter. Chief among these 
are yard toilets and hall sinks, both of which abound in this dis- 
trict, and removal of which the Department cannot compel. 
When owners were forced to remove school sinks (sewer con- 
nected privies), in many cases, instead of installing toilets in 
the apartments, connections were made with the old buildings 
in the yard. 



3 
Yard Toilets. 

According to the records of the Department, three hundred and 
eleven of such toilets exist. In winter these outdoor toilets are 
constantly freezing, and give rise to unsanitary surroundings. 
Indirectly, however, they are responsible for still worse condi- 
tions. 




A Typical Row of Washington Street Yard Toilets 

A study of the records of eight hundred and eighteen families 
known to the Washington Street Health Centre in this district, 
reveals the fact that over 50% of the families using the yard 
toilets are compelled to descend three or more flights of stairs. 
The result of such a condition in a section made up of foreign and 
ignorant people beggars description. Rather than walk the neces- 
sary three, four or more flights of stairs, all sorts of filthy habits 
are practiced. A look into the yards in the early morning is 
sufficient to convince anyone that these yard toilets are a menace 
to the health of the community, especially so when the tene- 
ments having them are three, four and five stories high. 

The accompanying diagram shows the number of flights up and 
down which the tenants must go to use the yard toilets. Two 
hundred and seventy-eight families, or one-third of the 818 regis- 



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Tom ilia 










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51 






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66 
Fatni/ics 




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60 
Tami/ia 






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58 

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Hoots. 




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TOr/iL TAMIL IE~S 


278 


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ground noon 5 

F/BST » 58 
5TCOND » 6.0 
THinD » 6.6 
TOUQ.TH » 31 

t/tth " 4 

"TOP" "(SEETBxr) 5+ 


/.8 » 
2a 9 
Z/-6 

23.7 > 
//.I 

AS 

194 » 


" Flights Up" of Families Using Yard Toilets 





tered at the Washington Street Health Centre, were using these 
"accommodations," and investigation showed that over three- 
fourths of this number were living two or more nights up. Bad 
as it appears, the diagram still understates conditions for a fifth 
of the families, 19.4% said they lived on the "top" floor, but 
could not tell which floor the top was. 



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% 




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8 




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Refuse Thrown from Windows, on Top of a Yard Toilet. 

These Places Are Difficult to Reach and Sometimes 

Are Not Cleaned for Weeks. Notice Cat Middle 

Right of Picture 



Hall Sinks. 

The hall sink also creates unsanitary conditions. These are 
frequently located in the darkest corner of the hall, and may 
become filthy without attracting attention. Also the responsibility 
for the cleanliness of the sink is divided between two or more ten- 
ants, each of whom will constantly affirm it to be her neighbor's 
turn to clean it. The usual outcome is that the sink remains dirty. 

Hall sinks, used by two or more families, are justly blamed for 
the spread of much infectious disease. Cases are on record 



6 

where such a disease has travelled directly across the hall 
to a family using the common sink, and has passed the other 




families on the floor. Slightly less than half of the total number 
of tenements in this district have these disease-breeding places. 



Rear Tenements. 

Land in this section of the city is so valuable that every avail- 
able foot is made use of. It is not surprising to find seven out 
of the thirty-seven blocks south of Fulton Street entirely built 
over, and twelve having 90% of ground area occupied. Seven 
rear tenements contribute their share to the land overcrowding. 




Filthy Halls and Stairs on Lower Washington Street 



Vertical Ladder Fire Escapes. 

The exact number of vertical ladder fire escapes could not be 
ascertained from the Tenement House Department records ; a 
number of the houses were examined, however, and many showed 
this type of fire escape. It consists of a vertical ladder, descend- 
ing the full length of the building, and running through a ''well," 
opening at each landing. To descend from the upper stories 
requires both strength and skill, and is almost impossible for 
women and children. A fall is disastrous, not only to the one 
making the misstep, but to others whom he may strike on the 
way down. The loss of life in a recent fire on the East Side of 



8 

New York was traced directly to the vertical ladder escape. The 
law now provides that this old type shall no longer be erected on 
high buildings. 

General Sanitary Conditions. 

In addition to the foregoing, the records of the Tenement House 
Department were examined for occupied cellars and basements, 
tenement bakeries, tenement stables and general sanitary condi- 
tions. 

The district was found to be especially free from basement and 
cellar dwellings. The only basement occupied was at 106 Green- 
wich Street, and no cellar dwellings at all were recorded. This 
is, undoubtedly, due to the fact that much of the land in this 
section is made land, and it is, therefore, impossible to prevent 
seepage from the river. Especially is this true on West Street, 
where the houses are built without basements, and with cellars* 
but three or four feet deep. 

No stables were found in tenements. 

In all cases, cellar bakeries have been properly fireproofed. 

Sanitary conditions varied from 40% to 60%, only an occa- 
sional house going above 60%. 

Dark and unventilated rooms are still to be found in the dis- 
trict, but the Tenement House Department is endeavoring to> 
eliminate them as fast as possible. Changes of this nature always 
involve structural alterations, and the process is therefore slow. 
In spite of the efforts of the Tenement House Department, such, 
rooms can never be made fit for habitation. The best that can be 
done is to compel the owner to cut a window through the wall 
leading to an adjoining room, which affords neither sunlight nor 
fresh air. Many of the interior bedrooms open upon small "cul~ 
ture tube" air shafts, which not only fail to supply fresh air, but 
are themselves made foul-smelling by garbage and refuse thrown 
into them. 

Room Overcrowding. 

A very prevalent evil, but one not easy to measure, is that of 
room over-crowding. The taking of boarders and lodgers is, in 
fact, general throughout the district. Two night inspections were 
made during the course of this investigation, and in some cases- 



as many as eight lodgers were found in an apartment. In a single 
Toom in one tenement, a man and wife were found sleeping on a 
mattress upon the floor; two men lodgers occupied a bed at 
one end of the room, and two girl boarders, about twenty years 
old, a small cot at the other end. 

Investigation of this problem is made extremely difficult be- 
cause of the suspicion with which any attempt to gain necessary 
information is viewed. To many, the keeping of boarders is a 



t 




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One Room Apartment, Serving as Kitchen, Dining Room, Laundry, 
Store Room and Bed Room for a Whole Family — 47 in the District. 



paying business, and they do not wish to have it suddenly termin- 
ated. The results of the following statistical analysis, based 
upon the word of the people themselves, greatly understates 
conditions. In one apartment where six beds were found, the 
woman declared that just she and her husband lived in the rooms, 
and that the other beds were there "in case any friends came." 
Under present conditions, strict enforcement of the law regu- 
lating room overcrowding is impossible. Education of children 
and adults to American standards seems, to offer the only solu- 
tion. As the children become better acquainted with the new 
ways and customs, they become ashamed of conditions in their 



10 



Soo 



450 



400 



JSO 



w JOO 



250 



260 



■Afo 



/QO 



JO 










/ 



1 



-Q. 



H 



2 3 4 S h V & 

ROOMS PER FAMILY 

Bars Represent Number of Families Occupying Various Sized Apartments. 
Shaded Portion, More Than Two Persons per Room. 

home, and carry to their parents the new ideas. What is being 
done along educational lines for the immigrant child will be dis- 
cussed later. 

The most noticeable fact contained in the accompanying table 
is that more than one-half the total number of families (57%) 
occupy two-room dwellings, and that one-third (34%) of these 
have from three to five people in a room. This means that in one 
room from three to five persons do their cooking, eating, sleep- 



11 

ing, laundry work and bathing, when this is thought necessary. 
No privacy is possible, and there is a continuous strain upon the 
nerves. The mother scolds the children who are playing on the 
floor or attempting to study, and nags the father, who is figuring 
out where next month's rent is coming from. Small wonder if 
he takes the first opportunity to find comparative peace and quiet 
in the corner saloon. The two-room apartments are little better 
than the one, for in reality they are little more than one room 
and an alcove. Into the inner room the only light and air which 
can enter is through the window cut in the wall, and one of these 
rooms must be used for various purposes. 



TABLE 



-ROOMS PER DWELLING IN RELATION TO NUMBER OF OCCUPANTS- 



NUMBER OF FAMILIES 



Number of persons per family, including boarders and lodgers 



Rooms per 
Family 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


Over 
10 


Total 


% 


1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
q 


1 
2 


20 

66 

18 

9 

i 


11 

126 

34 

14 

"i 
'i 


13 

113 

36 

9 


1 
90 
43 
15 

'l 


1 
43 
34 
10 

1 


is 

25 
10 

1 


"9 

17 
5 
3 
1 

i 


"2 

1 
3 


'i 

2 


3 

1 


47 

467 

211 

77 

5 

6 

2 

1 

1 


5.7 

57.2 

25.8 

9.5 

.6 

.8 

.2 

.1 

.1 


Total Families 


3 


114 


187 


171 


150 


89 


54 


36 


6 


3 


5 


817 


100.0 



What are known as "Border Line Houses" also flourish in this 
district. These oscillate between tenements and furnished room 
houses, and are alternately under the jurisdiction of the Tene- 
ment House and Health Departments, as an inspection reveals 
conditions. A tenant, occupying a three-room apartment in a 
furnished room house, will sublet each room to a separate fam- 
ily. If these families attempt to do cooking on the premises, the 
house automatically becomes a tenement, and is no longer under 
the jurisdiction of the Health Department. Under the crowded 
conditions, the appointments, originally intended for one family, 
are decidedly inadequate, and the situation becomes acute in 
case of fire, the escapes being almost useless. A horrible example 



12 
of this occurred during the past year at a tenement house fire on 
Seventh Avenue. Five persons lost their lives under conditions 
which could be duplicated, should a fire occur in many of the 
houses on Washington Street. 

Lodging Houses, 

No instance of what is usually known as the Lodging House 
occurs in this district. There are, however, many so-called sail- 
ors' boarding houses and immigrant boarding houses. These are 
under the jurisdiction of the Labor Department's Bureau of 
Industries and Immigration, and will be discussed under Immi- 
gration. 

Recommendations. 

There is little hope of improvement in houses in this district 
until the people living here are made to realize the possibility 
and need of better environment. The demand for better condi- 
tions should come from them, rather than from an outside agency. 
The plan which appears to be most feasible would be to carry on 
educational housing work in the heart of the district, such work 
to include: 

(a) A general -housing exhibit, with special reference to the 
tenant ; 

(b) An exhibition of good and bad neighborhood conditions 
by means of photographs, maps and charts ; 

(c) Stereopticon lectures and moving pictures on the subject 
of housing, sanitation, and general health topics; 

(d) Education through clubs, classes, etc. 

The next step would be an experiment in actually improving 
housing conditions, such as was successfully carried on in London 
and elsewhere under what has become known as the "Octavia 
Hill" plan. The method is to gain control by purchase or agency 
of a group of houses, to put them in condition and keep them so, 
and thus, by the example of good conditions combined with fair 
profits, to raise the standards for all owners. 

The work in London was started in 1866 under the inspiration 
of Ruskin. He believed that spiritual elevation depended, to a 
certain extent, on sanitary reform. With this before her, Miss 
Octavia Hill endeavored to instil her own ideals, by personal con- 



13 




Stairs in a Washington Street House 



14 

tact, into the minds of others less fortunate. Mr. Ruskin insisted 
that the working man should be able to pay for his own home, 
and that the scheme should be a financial as well as a philan- 
thropic success. Miss Hill began the experiment with three houses 
and at the end of the first eighteen months, was paying about 
8% on the investment. The method is much broader and deeper 
than simply maintaining a number of houses in good condition. 
It is not so much a question of dealing with houses alone, as the 
question of dealing with houses in connection with their influ- 
ence on the character and habits of the people who occupy them. 
Simply to put the houses in repair would mean that the work 
would be undone at once by the bad habits and carelessness of 
the tenants. 

"You cannot deal with the people and their houses separately. 
The principle on which the whole work rests is that the inhabi- 
tants and their surroundings must be improved together. It has 
never yet failed to succeed." 

Such an undertaking would involve the finding of a landlord 
who would be willing to turn over a number of houses for com-, 
plete management by suitable agents. The houses would then 
"be made sanitary in every way and a rent collector engaged, 
whose business it would be to educate the tenants into keeping 
their apartments in first-class condition. 

Where this experiment has been tried, it has proved to the sat- 
isfaction of the landlords that they can receive a fair return on 
their investment and still maintain decent conditions in their 
houses. 



CHAPTER II. 
IMMIGRATION. 

National Groups. 
The district under investigation was chosen to exactly corre- 
spond to the Federal Census unit, and classified population figures 
for the whole are, therefore, available. 

The following figures compiled by the New York Federation 
of Churches from the Census of 1910 show national groups for 
that year to have been as follows : 

Census 1910. 
Compiled by the New York Federation of Churches. 
Boundaries: Battery Place; Bowling Green; Broadway; Lib- 
erty Street; Hudson River: 

TABLE II. NATIVITY, PARENTAGE AND COLOR STATISTICS 



Total Population 

Total Whites 

lotal Foreign Born 

Native Whites Native Parentage 

Whites of Foreign Descent 

Mixed Foreign Parentage 

Both Parents Foreign 

One Parent Foreign 

Total Foreign Parentage 

Negroes 

Other Colored 

Gain 1905-1910 



Number 


Per Cent. 


6441 


100.0 


6431 


99.8 


3977 


61.7 


455 


7.0 


5976 


92 7 


189 


2.9 


1756 


27.2 


243 


3.7 


1999 


31.0 


3 


Less than 1% 


7 


U U (t 


719 


11.1 



From Table II, it will be seen that of a total population of 6,441, 
3,977, or 61.7%, almost two-thirds are foreign born. This fact 
stamps the district as essentially foreign. Further than this, 
31% of the children are of foreign parentage, and 92.7%, prac- 
tically the entire population, are of foreign descent. Only three 
negroes were found by the census takers. 

Twenty-eight per cent, of the total population of the district 
gave their nationality as Austro-Hungarian, 18% as Irish, 15% 
as Asiatic-Turkish, under which classification the Syrians are to 
be found. 



15 



16 





I 



JIATIVITIT 



1 



17 




Future American Citizens on Board S. S. "Amerika" Arriving at Ellis Island. 



TABLE III. COUNTRY OF BIRTH OR PARENTAGE 



Country of Birth or Parentage 


Number 


Per Cent, of 
Population 


Austria-Hungary 


1807 

1138 

948 

397 

322 

259 

244 

47 

40 

19 

12 

12 

10 

7 

7 

7 

5 

4 

4 

3 

2 

250 


Less 

a 

a 
« 

a 
u 

u 

u 

<( 


28 


Ireland 


18 


Syria (Asiatic Turkey) 


15 


Germany 


6 


Russia 


5 


Italy 


4 


Greece 


4 


England 


than 1% 

u u 


Sweden 


Switzerland 


u u 


France 


u a 


Scotland 


u u 


Norway , 


« a 


Holland 


a a 


Roumania 

Canada (England) 


U it 

u a 


Denmark 

Finland 


a a 
« u 


Turkey (European) 


u a 


Canada (French) 


a a 


Wales 


U '< 


Other Countries 


4 







18 



TABLE IV. SPEECH CLASSIFICATION 





Number 


Per Cent. 


English Speaking Foreign Descent 


1210 
59 

427 
524 

3513 

708 


18.6 


Scandinavian 


0.9 


Teutonic 


6.6 


Latin 


8.1 


Yiddish, Polish, Slovak, Magyar, Turkish and 
Mixed German 


54.5 


All Others 


11.3 






Total 


6441 


100.0 







Although population figures of former years were unavailable r 
the district has always been considered essentially Syrian, and 
the fact that both the Austro-Hungarians and Irish led the 
Syrians in 1910, gives weight to the belief that the racial char- 
acter of the district is changing. 

An interesting comparison is seen in the results of a tabulation 
of 818 families known to the Washington Street Health Centre, 
made especially for the present survey. 

These records show 41.7% of the families belonging to the 
Austro-Hungarian group ; 31.8% Syrians, and 4% Irish. Al- 
though these families were chosen at random, and represent half 
of the total families, it is possible that unknown factors may make 
a direct comparison dangerous. One fact, however, seems cer- 
tain; the Austro-Hungarian group has not only held its own 
since 1910, but has steadily gained within the last four years. 



Austro-Hungarians. 

This group represents the "New" European immigration in 
the district, and presents the problems involved in educating to 
our own ideas a race of entirely different customs and ideals. 

Among these people the evil of over-crowding is found in its 
worst form; and an apparent disregard for the marriage vows on 
the part of many of the males leads to numerous cases of desertion. 

Those belonging to this nationality are found chiefly in the 
unskilled trades, as porters, laborers and in similar pursuits. 



19 
Syrians. 
The Syrians are almost wholly commercial. Within the district 
they are found engaged in the manufacture of lace and kimonos, 
as importers and peddlers. They are ambitious and thrifty, and 
soon become independent. After saving enough money, the 
Syrians show a tendency to move to the newer Syrian settle- 
ments in New York and Brooklyn. Their stay in the district, 
therefore, is a means to an end, and while here, they make a busi- 
ness of taking fellow countrymen as lodgers to help them them- 
selves the more quickly to leave this section. During the spring 
and summer months, numbers leave the district to peddle laces 
and shawls in the surrounding towns and summer resorts. 

Irish. 

In contrast to the Syrians, the Irish population shows no ten- 
dency to leave the district, either temporarily or permanently. 
This group represents what is left of an older immigration which, 
with the Germans and Syrians, previously made up the entire 
population of the district. With the arrival of the southern 
European races, the better class of both Irish and Germans have 
moved further up town. 



The Battery must always remain the gateway to New York. 
As each year sees the arrival of an increasing number of immi- 
grants, the problem of temporarily caring for them at their first 
stopping place becomes more and more complex. Nearly a quar- 
ter of a million newly arrived immigrants intending to make New 
York their future home land at the Barge Office from the Gov- 
ernment Station at Ellis Island each year. 

Whether arriving in or leaving the country, it is usually 
necessary to stop here, often for a day or more. While making 
arrangements for transportation, or while locating friends in 
the city, if his home is to be in New York, the new arrival is in 
great need of advice and assistance. Alone and in a strange land, 
ignorant of the language, he is indeed helpless. 

Realizing his condition at this time, a number of unscrupulous 
individuals, recruited from the ranks of ex-convicts, pickpockets 
and the like, have found the vicinity of the Barge Office a most 
profitable field in which to pursue their unlawful practices, and 



20 

have come to regard the newly arrived immigrant as their legiti- 
mate prey. There is even reason to believe that the exploitation 
of the immigrant is an organized business. 

The newly arrived immigrant must have at least $50.00 in his 
possession; his exploiters are thus assured that their labors will 
not be in vain. Runners acting as guides escort immigrants at 
exorbitant rates to hotel or railroad station, at times threatening 
and even assaulting them if they refuse to pay the amount 
demanded. A case recently came before the Bureau of Industries 
and Immigration, in which a runner who had escorted an immi- 
grant during the day, returned at night, saying that there had 
been a mistake about the papers, and that it would be necessary 
for him to return to Ellis Island at once. When the two reached 
the railroad station, the immigrant was assaulted and robbed. 

In 1904, a special policeman was detailed at the Battery Land- 
ing, who, in addition to driving away many runners, made 
twenty-three arrests in the first two years. This police protection 
was withdrawn in 1906, and all efforts have not succeeded in 
securing its reestablishment. The special policeman who had been 
detailed for this service stated in his testimony before the Com- 
missioner of Immigration that the condition at the Battery during 
the time of normal immigration required the attention of four 
officers for the full protection of aliens. At the present time 
there are but two officers in Battery Park, and but one assigned 
to the immediate vicinity of the Barge Office, who also covers the 
Custom House and Governor's Island Landing. 

The outgoing emigrant fares little better in spite of his knowl- 
edge of the language. The following is an extract from the Third 
Annual Report of the Bureau of Industries and Immigration 
(1913) : 

"Owing to the Balkan War in the early part of the year, the 
exodus of Greeks, Bulgarians, Servians and other Slavic races, 
was unusually large. Added to the normal returning immigrant 
tide for the Christmas holiday period, every steamer embark- 
ing at the port of New York was filled to capacity. Hundreds of 
outward bound steerage passengers were left behind at almost 
every sailing, owing to the over-issue of ' ' Transportation Orders ' ' 
by steamship ticket agents throughout the country. The struggle 
at the docks to have tickets "stamped" preparatory to boarding 



21 

the steamer created an opportunity for petty grafting not lost 
sight of by the hordes of "hangers on" who infest the docks." 

The passenger who is left over is compelled to accept one of 
three propositions which the company offers him: (1) to sail on a 
steamer of another line the same day, and if the rate is cheaper, 
receive a refund; (2) to exchange his ticket for a steamer of the 
same line sailing at a later date, and have his board and lodging 




■ m is «,;■ ■■ m 

* * . / 



w% 



■A? 






,_ r 



Immigrants Arriving at the Government Barge Office. 

Many of These Aliens Must Remain in the District Several Days. 

It is During This Time That They Are in Need of Guidance and Protection. 

expense for the number of days during which he must remain in 
New York City paid for by the company at the rate of 75 cents 
or $1 per day; and (3) to cancel his ticket and have the full pur- 
chase price refunded to him. The first proposition is most advan- 
tageous to the passenger, as he may thus sail immediately and 
receive a refund where there is a difference betwen the rates. 
The second method must of necessity be employed to a consider- 
able extent, as all left-over passengers cannot be transferred to 
other steamers sailing the same day. Under the present system, 
the steamship company exchanges each passenger's ticket in due 



22 

course but pays the board and lodging expense direct to the im- 
migrant lodging-place keeper who has taken him from the dock. 
In many instances brought to the Bureau's attention, the passen- 
ger does not know that the company has agreed to pay for his 
board and lodging and does not protest when the unscrupulous 
lodging-place keeper, at the end of his stay, demands payment in 
full for the number of days he has remained at the place at the 
rate of $1 or $1.50 per day. If he does protest, his baggage is 
withheld. It is too late for him to argue it out now. He pays, 
as he is afraid he will again miss his steamer. The third method, 
where the passenger cancels his ticket and obtains his full refund, 
is the most pernicious of all. The company's responsibility is at 
an end and the emigrant is soon taken in tow by an irresponsible 
countryman who camps on his trail. Before he knows it, his 
money is gone and he is stranded in a strange city. Runners and 
steamship ticket agents, of course, favor this method, as they are 
thus enabled to induce the passenger to purchase from them a 
steamship ticket for another line, possibly at a reduced rate, but 
on a steamer of an inferior type, on which the passenger does not 
in reality desire to sail. The steamship companies are clearly 
responsible for this condition. If they cannot regulate the "over- 
sale" of tickets, they can at least provide protection for the 
ignorant and helpless beings who have entered in good faith into 
written contracts with them. Some of the companies have already 
taken steps in this direction, but until this becomes more general, 
the condition will persist. 



Transportation Facilities. 

There are at present three agencies which are attempting to 
meet the needs of the newly arrived foreigner. 

The Immigrant Guide and Transfer Company delivers immi- 
grants to any part of the city for stated fees, and last year 50,- 
000 such deliveries were made; "Werner's Transfer," guides to 
the piers and terminals of the New York, New Haven and Hart- 
ford Railroad only; and the Travelers' Aid, a purely philan- 
thropic agency, helps only immigrants found to be in trouble 
upon arrival. 

Of the many philanthropies designed to care for aliens, none 
has served more useful purpose than the Immigrant Home. There 



23 

are at least four conditions under which these homes may be .of 
service: (1) When the friends and relatives of the aliens fail 
to call for them at Ellis Island, and when the address of such 
friends has been lost by the new arrival, or when they have no 
friends or relatives in the city; (2) When a member of the fam- 
ily is detained at Ellis Island for sickness or other reason; (3) 




The Immigrant in His Adopted Country. 
Scene on Washington Street 



For guidance and direction after arrival at the Battery; (4) As 
a temporary place of residence for those who are about to leave 
the country while awaiting the sailing of the steamship. 

There are in New York City 33 Homes under the supervision 
of the Bureau of Industries and Immigration, two of which, 
"The Federation for the Assistance of the Italian Immigrant,' ' 
and the "Home for Scandinavian Immigrants," are located in 
this district, most of the others being so close at hand that they 
may not be overlooked in summing up the social assets of the 
district. 



24 

The following is a list of aliens handled by the various Immi- 
grant Homes and Transfer Companies for the months of April 
and May, 1914: 

TABLE V. NUMBER OF IMMIGRANTS HANDLED BY IMMIGRANT HOMES AND 

OTHER AGENCIES DURING THE MONTHS OF APRIL AND MAY, 1914* 
APRIL, 1914 

Austrian Society 237 

Clara de Hirsch Home for Immigrant Girls 145 

Home for Scandinavian Immigrants 301 

Hungarian Relief Society of New York 930 

Immigrant Guide and Transfer 3493 

Polish National Alliance 221 

Russian Immigrant Home 292 

Scandinavian Sailors' Temperance Home 273 

Slavonic Home 122 

Society for Italian Immigrants 1223 

Swedish Lutheran Home 403 

Total for April 8560 



may, 1914 

Austrian Society 451 

Huguenot Home 32 

Hungarian Relief Society of New York 788 

Immigrant Guide and Transfer 3372 

Immigrant Home for Girls of the Women's Missionary Society of the 

Methodist Episcopal Church * 82 

Leo Home for German Catholics 430 

Lutheran Immigrant Society 75 

Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary 20 

Slavonic Home 152 

Swedish Lutheran Home 653 

St. Josephs Home 32 

Society for Italian Immigrants 1433 

Travellers Aid 2508 

Total for May 9978 

Total April and May 18,538 

*The system of reporting was begun in April 1914, and above reports are 
incomplete. 

During this same period a total of 198,226 aliens arrived at the 
port of New York. Making due allowance for those met by 
friends and relatives, it will be seen that a large majority of the 
immigrants are left to their own resources. It is upon these 
helpless individuals that many hotels of the district live ; all sorts 
of devices being used, all having the one object of parting the im- 
migrant from his money in the shortest possible time. 



25 

The Bureau of Industries and Immigration is especially inter- 
ested in the immigrant hotel situation in this district, and heartily 
welcomes any efforts to better conditions. 

The only plan adequate to meet all of the problems created by 
the annual arrival of a quarter of a million of foreigners would 
be the establishment of a permanent bureau of information, con- 
ducted by an agency of such undoubted reputation that all aliens 
could feel assured of fair and open treatment after placing them- 
selves in its hands. 

In connection with such a bureau, dormitories and a guide serv- 
ice should be maintained as well as other machinery for the 
proper care of the immigrants over a few days, and for their dis- 
tribution after that time. 

Such an undertaking need not be primarily philanthropic. 
While requiring the investment of capital, there is every reason 
to believe that under business-like management, such an under- 
taking could be made self-supporting. It is said that the larger 
of the transfer companies has several times been made substantial 
offers for the privilege which it enjoys through its contract with 
the Federal Government. And it will be seen at a glance that this 
is a paying business, handling as it does some 50,000 persons 
yearly at an average rate of 50 cts. each. 

Present Situation 

The immediate effect of the general European War now in 
progress has been to reduce immigration to a minimum. The 
ultimate effect, however, will probably be to increase immigra- 
tion to this country. The character of this immigration will 
depend upon the outcome of the conflict now in progress, al- 
though it seems certain that even with an Austro-German vic- 
tory, conditions among the peasants of these countries will cause 
many to leave. In any event, it will develop an increase in the 
number of women and children among the immigrants to this 
country, and these are especially in need of protection. 

THE PROPER TIME TO STUDY AND PREPARE FOR THIS 
NEW IMMIGRATION IS NOW, BEFORE IT IS ACTUALLY 
UPON US. 



26 
Education. 

The district has a responsibility to the great number of immi- 
grants who must pass through each year; but to those who per- 
manently locate here, we have a still greater obligation. 

In all probability the district under consideration has the most 
cosmopolitan population of any of the same size in the world. 
According to the Census of 1910 for the enumeration district 
bounded by Liberty Street, Broadway, the Battery and Hudson 
River, out of a total population of 6,441 persons, there are 5,976 
whites of foreign descent, of whom 3,977 were foreign born. 
Twenty-eight per cent, of the total population are Austro-Hun- 
garian; 18% Irish; 15% Syrian, the remainder coming from 
every country listed by Census takers; Germany, Russia, Greece, 
Italy, Sweden, England, Switzerland, Scotland, Norway, France, 
Roumania, Holland, Denmark, Finland, Turkey, Canada and 
Wales contributing in the order named. When it is considered 
that many of these may be further subdivided into smaller dia- 
lects and groups, the Poles alone representing nine different dia- 
lects, some idea of the magnitude of the problems for American- 
ization which confront the district may be gained. 

The problem is one of adaptation and assimilation. The alien 
has been brought up under conditions which differ from those 
that obtain in America and fitted for an industrial, political and 
social life in many respects dissimilar to that of this country. 
Many have come from country districts and are unfamiliar with 
sanitary codes, licenses, compulsory education and child labor 
regulations and cannot comprehend the meaning of the new laws. 

To deprive the alien of the means of understanding our insti- 
tutions is to encourage the perpetuation of alien groups, speaking 
a foreign language and uninfluenced by American standards and 
traditions. Since knowledge of the language of the country is 
a most important factor in establishing communication with its 
thought, instruction along this line is the first principle in the 
education of the immigrant. Knowledge of the language also 
facilitates economic independence, without which the adoption 
of American standards is impossible. 

As previously noted, the predominating races in this district 
are Austrians, Hungarians and other Slavic races, and Syrians; 
most of whom come from countries with few educational ad- 



27 

vantages. On this account, these races show a very high per- 
centage of illiteracy. Out of 1,637 foreign born males of voting 
age, residing in the district, 303, or 18.5%, could neither read nor 
write, and 1,398 females, 487 or 34.8%, were illiterate. 

The necessity for education is augmented by the fact that six- 
sevenths of all aliens arrive at the age of 14 or over, and hence 
cannot be required to attend school. 

The district is meeting this need by evening classes in the local 
public school from October to May ; elementary English subjects, 
simple dressmaking and sewing being taught. 

The majority of all aliens arrive during the period from April 
to October. During most of this time, the evening school is 
closed and instead of being immediately enrolled in classes, the 
immigrant is obliged to wait until his early interest in America 
and his first keen desire to know English have been cooled. 

Civics for Aliens. 

In addition to instruction in English, instruction in practical 
civics is of very great importance, both to the immigrant himself 
and to the community. He should understand the educational 
opportunities, the laws governing compulsory education and child 
labor, opportunities for work in various parts of the state, laws 
and licenses governing occupations which he is to enter, munici- 
pal ordinances and statutes. As yet no provision has been made 
for imparting this vital information to the aliens of the district. 

Children. 

The education of the immigrant child should be of the greatest 
importance, not only because he is to be the future citizen, but 
also because the child as interpreter to the family is the most 
potent factor in the education of the adults. 

For several years New York City has conducted special classes 
called the "C" classes in the various schools, for instruction in 
English in order to prepare pupils more rapidly for the regular 
grades, and one of these classes is located in Public School No. 
29, on Washington Street. The value of such a class, although 
impaired by being made up of so many different nationalities, is 
nevertheless very great. 



28 
Industrial Training and Vocational Guidance. 

Industrial and vocational education, while important for all 
children, is especially so for the immigrant child. Economic con- 
ditions in most cases render it almost impossible for him to obtain 
an education suitable to any but industrial work, and for this 
reason it is of the greatest importance that he be guided along 
these lines. 

How this may best be accomplished is still a debatable ques- 
tion, but is certainly worthy of thoughtful consideration, for at 
the present, no attempt is being made to fit the immigrant for the 
job be is bound to take up. 



CHAPTER III, 
RECREATION. 

Playgrounds. 

The 1910 census records in the district south of Liberty Street 
over 1,700 children under fifteen years of age, of whom half are 
between the ages of six and fourteen. What these children do 
during vacation and after school hours will determine, to a large 
extent, the kind of citizens we may expect this district to con- 
tribute to New York City during the next decade. 

The child's instincts are sure to find expression, and it is for 
us to say whether they shall be guided along the channels that 
make for clean, healthy manhood and womanhood, or whether 
their guidance shall be left to the gangster and rowdy, who 
infest this part of the city. 

The district is fortunate in having Battery Park so close at 
hand. Not only does this afford breathing space for thousands 
from the congested districts of both the lower East and West 
Sides of the city, but here also is potential play space, the equal 
of which few sections of New York can boast. 

The Department of Parks conducts a playground at the lower 
east side of the Park under the supervision of paid directors. The 
playground is divided into a girls' section and boys' section. Two 
young women are in charge of the girls, who enjoy the swings, 
play in the sand, or spend their time making baskets, and the 
like. This division averages approximately two hundred chil- 
dren daily most of whom are accompanied by their mothers. 

The boys' division does not give so favorable an impression. 
It is located under the elevated railroad, as is also the girls', and 
the pillars are a serious hindrance to the more vigorous games 
played by the boys. Baseball, the chief playground attraction, 
is impossible, the whole area being little larger than a baseball 
diamond. The only visible equipment is a row of swings. A 
small running track surrounds the grounds, but this has not been 
put in condition for use this year. Evidences of a jumping pit 
also remain. On the whole, the place presents a very unattrac- 
tive appearance. 

29 



30 

This playground is intended to furnish play space to the boys 
of both the lower East and West Sides. Over four hundred boys 
live in the district being surveyed, and this forms but a small 
part of the total number in lower Manhattan. 

In spite of this, two visits made during the course of this inves- 
tigation, showed no more than thirty persons using the play- 
ground, half of these being grown men. At noon, many office 
clerks from the surrounding office buildings visit the playground 













'.:.' ." .: •'■. ."■".- : • . .■..■:,' 










«-■ " <w*L ^' ' 










., ■ 

." :..-.. ' • -if ■■ fife 








, 


|||||§||M * ' > " % , - >* W^^HI 










V h'JJk**: 








■_ 

"'1 


gajrafisj^. :-. ; •'-,• 


34teS8Si 






. 




',: ' 


fiiy ■ 4SML 


l«':l|;f>|||^ »'^B 





Battery Park — The Natural Playground of the Lower West Side. 

The Present Playground is Located Under the Elevated 

Railroad and is Inadequate In Every Way 

for an hour's exercise, and these form a large part of the daily 
average attendance of two hundred reported by the Department 
of Parks. Outside of these, the daily average attendance, ac- 
cording to the attendant in charge, is no more than fifty. 

A very bad feature of the playground is the number of grown 
idlers usually present. At both visits* at least half of the total 
number were of this class. Although against the rules, these 
men were engaged in a game of baseball (the playground atten- 
dant playing with them), endangering the occupants of the sur- 
rounding park benches, many of whom were women and children, 
and monopolizing the scant apparatus of the grounds. 



31 

Why have the children boycotted this playground? Certainly 
not because they do not want a playground. Visit any of the 
cross streets from Battery Place to Liberty Street and you will 
find numerous games of baseball and cat, in progress, not to men- 
tion the chalk games, pennies and crap. 

The answer is simple. With baseball debarred and nothing but 
a row of swings offered as a substitute, the boys prefer the streets. 




Base-ball Along the Docks, a Poor Substitute For An Athletic Field 

Battery Park covers a space of twenty acres and contains several 
ovals, any one of which could be readily converted into an ath- 
letic field, but instead, we find on each the dreadful warning, 
1 'Keep off the Grass." 

Several unimproved lots exist in the district, located as follows : 

Washington Street, 64-74, Store Yard; 

Washington Street, 162-168, Wagon Yard; 

Greenwich Street, 101-105, Taxicab Stand; 

West Street, 4-22, Whitehall Court ; 

Trinity Church Yard. 

The two first mentioned are practically waste land, and could 
readily be converted into playgrounds to replace the rubbish heaps 
which now litter them. But even though it were possible to 



32 

secure these playgrounds, the wisdom of so doing, before an 
effort has been made to induce the city to increase the facilities 
at Battery Park, is questioned. 

The following is a letter from the Parks and Playgrounds Asso- 
ciation, on August 27th, relative to the playground at Battery 
Park : 

PARKS AND PLAYGROUNDS ASSOCIATION 

OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 

1123 Broadway 

August 27th, 1914. 
Mr. P. Barton Myers, Jr., 

Social Service Secretary, 
187 Fulton Street, City. 
Dear Sir: 

The Parks and Playgrounds Association has long been inter- 
ested in the district referred to in your letter of the 18th instant, 
and the lack of playground facilities in the neighborhood south of 
Fulton Street, and west of Broadway, has been a matter of great 
concern with us. We have repeatedly urged upon the City Offi- 
cials the need of making some provision, but without success. 
While the Park Department has made an attempt toward this 
end at Battery Park, the playground there in our opinion is not 
only badly managed, but inadequate in every way. 

Our Association has on several occasions tried to procure a 
loan of property in that district for playground use, but no suit- 
able site has been available. We have, however, made use of a 
few streets there for play purposes and the experiment has proved 
to be worth while. At the present time, the Association is co- 
operating with the Police Department in the supervision of streets 
closed to traffic during certain hours of the day, and should you 
have in mind any street that would be well adapted for play 
purposes, we will be glad to see that some provision is made for 
its use. 

I enclose herewith a little pamphlet showing the play activities 
conducted by the Association this season. 

Yours very truly, 
(Signed) LOLA MORTON, 

Enclosure. Secretary. 



33 





'•■ ' r HW 




,'^Sf-j3 


■ 1 


* 




"Penny a Ride' 



Pitching Pennies' 




'A Sly Game of Crap" 



'One O' Cat' 



Floating Baths. 

Another recreational feature of Battery Park is the opportunity 
afforded for bathing. Two Floating Baths, one for girls and the 
other for boys are anchored off the sea wall, and are in operation 
from the end of June till the middle of October. From June to 
October 1913 over 400,000 baths were taken in Battery Park 
Floating Baths, most of which were enjoyed by the children 
of lower Manhattan. 

From the standpoint of health however, the baths can not be 
considered assets. Experiments conduted by both the Associ- 
ation for Improving the, Condition of the Poor in co-operation with 
the Department of Public Works, and by the Department of 
Health, have established beyond a doubt that the baths are pol- 
luted by sewage, and are a dangerous source of infection. 



34 

Stringent rules have been adopted governing the use of the 
floating baths, and the danger is greatly lessened; but it is the 
opinion of Doctor C. F. Boldman, Chief of the Division of Public 
Health Education, that the city must change its policy towards 
river bathing and that the floating baths must eventually be 
superseded. 

Battery Park playground and the floating baths, both of which 
are of doubtful value, are practically the only recreational fea- 
tures of the district. 






At 




■ .... 

' ■■■'■. 


1 







A Floating Bath at the Battery 



'The Movies' 



Theatre. 

This report would be incomplete if mention were not made 
of the moving picture show at 24 Washington Street. The "Bat- 
tery Theatre" in spite of poor light and ventilation, is the most 
popular place of recreation in this section. 

A report was current that this picture show was the resort for 
undesirable people ; that fights were frequent, and that the place 
was a nuisance. The theatre was visited twice during this in- 
vestigation, in the afternoon, and again on Saturday night; no 
disturbances occurred during these visits. 



Social Centre. 

The opportunities afforded by the public school, as a social and 
recreational centre seem to have been almost ignored by social 
agencies working in this district. 



35 

The use of the school as a social centre is no longer an ex- 
periment. With no settlement to interpret and meet the needs of 
the district, it would seem that a social centre at Public School 
29 would do much towards taking the place of a much needed 
settlement house. 

In summing up the recreational facilities Trinity Churchyard 
in the district, and St. Paul's closely adjoining, may not be 
omitted. Both are frequented during the day by hundreds 
from the surrounding office buildings and afford with Battery 
Park the only green spots in this section. Trinity Church and St. 
Paul's Chapel welcome the use of their grounds, simply request- 
ing that those using them remember that they are cemeteries as 
well as Church property, and treat them accordingly. 



CHAPTER IV. 
INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS. 

The following deductions relative to the industrial situation 
are based upon eight hundred and eighteen families known to the 
Health Centre of the New York Milk Committee. These eight 
hundred and eighteen families were selected at random, repre- 
senting approximately, one-half of the total families in the dis- 
trict, and can therefore be relied upon to give a true picture 
of general conditions. 

Low wages, unskilled labor, and casual employment are in 
brief the story of a large majority of the families in this district. 

To supplement the wages of the principal breadwinner, in 
many families the mother and all children over sixteen years of 
age work, and it is found necessary to take boarders and lodgers 
in the already overcrowded rooms, to the moral as well as physi- 
cal detriment of the family. 

In approximately half of the families, both parents were work- 
ing, but in spite of this over two-thirds had a weekly income of 
not over $15.00 and one-fourth of not over $10.00. 

Rentals for the two room apartments which predominate are 
exceedingly high for the accommodations provided, centering 
around $10.00 per month. If the amount paid for rent is sub- 
tracted from the total income, one reason for the taking of lodgers 
become apparent. 

Three-fourths of the fathers in this district are in the unskilled 
trades according to the records of the "Health Centre." The 
greater number are porters, longshoremen, peddlers, or waiters. 
Of the fathers recorded, one-fifth gave their occupation as porters, 
one-fifth as laborers and longshoremen, one-eighth as peddlers, 
and one-twelfth waiters, the remainder being mainly bartenders, 
drivers or clerks. A glance at the list shows but too clearly the 
reason for the low wages which exist. The principal occupations 
are in trades requiring little or no skill, and the men are forced 
to accept the results of an over-supply of this class of labor. 

In general it may be said that the Syrians are the peddlers 
and the Irish the longshoremen, while the porters, waiters and 

36 



61 

drivers, are recruited from all nationalities. Practically the 
whole adult population of the district is foreign born. This ac- 
counts for the high percentage of men in the unskilled trades. 
In their native lands these people were chiefly agricultural, and 
upon arrival in this country they have been forced into the first 
employment which offered a livelihood. This phase of the indus- 
trial situation is closely allied with the immigration problems 
and has been more fully discussed under that head. 



' '^ ^ *tf * lit *3l 





Mothers in the Early Morning Hours Leaving Babies at the 
Down Town Day Nursery 

Casual Employment. 

Of all fathers known to the "Health Centre" 42.1% are not 
employed regularly. The worst condition of casual employment 
exists among the laborers, of whom 60% reported irregular or 
casual employment. Since the opening of the European War. 
and the consequent sudden stop in shipping, practically all en- 
gaged in work along the docks have been thrown out of em- 
ployment. 

There are thirteen employment agencies in this district attempt- 
ing to supply positions, but they are not meeting the situation in 
any adequate way. The following is a list of employment 
agencies in the district licensed by the Commissioner of Licenses : 



38 

Pace Agency 30 Church Street 

National Employment Exchange 30 Church Street 

Samuel M. Till 2 Carlisle Street 

Jacob Koengslein 6 Greenwich Street 

Albert Hulsebosch 51 " " 

Wilhelmina Reiss 53 

Max Freund 57 " " 

Joseph Till 66 

Samuel Berger 72 

Joseph Feldman 109 

Paul W. Conje 86 

Morris Engel' 129 

Armin Kerz 73 West Street 



if! 


: ■' ' ■ '■/' ' ; " : 


Bti 


H ^K 


W tBuSR 




8, ■#^11p»^H 
Ml ti \ 




«J wm*3 




|>^i 11 






: ' '■■• . ',-■:■'■;■:■- ■'"':■-' ■ 


i issB 


- 



Disposessed 



Sixty-three per cent of mothers known to the ''Health Centre" 
were forced to work outside of the home to supplement the 
family income, although only 12% of the total mothers of families 
were widows or deserted. Of the working mothers, 70% are 
office cleaners in the downtown buildings. The hours of these 
women are from six to nine in the morning and five to eight 
in the evening. 



39 



360 
340 
320 
300 
280 
260 
240 
220 
200 
180 
160 
140 
120 
100 

80 

60 

40 

20 
On 



Total Families . . .|818| Per Cent 


Total Mothers . . . 

Office Cleaners . . . 
Factory Workers . 
Peddlers 


807 


100.0 


359 
59 
50 
13 

11 
9 
6 

7 


44.4 
7.3 
6.2 
1.6 
1.3 
1.1 
0.7 
0.8 


Janitors 

Waitresses 

Needlework trades 

Clerks 

Other trades 


Mothers Working . 


514 


63.6 



Clerk 



Waitress Peddler 



Office 
Cleaner 



Factory 
Worker 



Janitor 



Needlework 
trades 



Mothers 



Woman's Work 



Office cleaning is largely drudgery and in the majority of cases 
is little better than servile labor. No modern machines have 
found their way into this class of work, and the woman must re- 
main upon her knees or in a bending posture most of the time. 
As a result she is nearly exhausted at the end of each day. Dust 
and dampness also add to the unpleasantness and dangers of this 
work. Office cleaners receive $4.50 or at the most $5.00 per week. 



40 

These women must accept what pay they can get at work which 
enables them to be with their children part of the day. 

The next largest group of women workers found, is in the 
kimono factories on Washington Street. Fifty-one of the total 
mothers were so employed, and were earning $5.00 and $6.00 per 
week. 

The many restaurants downtown offer employment to women 
in this district also, and wages paid here are low and hours long. 




Many of the Syrians Are Peddlers 

Many women work in the restaurants during the noon rush hour 
only, and this work is fairly well paid. Where a woman has the 
entire support of the family, she will do both office cleaning and 
restaurant work as well. This means almost constant labor from 
6 A. M., till 8 P. M., to say nothing of household duties after her 
return from work. 

Factories. 

According to the report of the State Department of: Labor 
(1912), there are in the district, 37 factories employing 1440 



41 

persons of whom 224 are women, and 24 children between the 
ages of 14 and 16. Two kimono factories on Washington Street 
employ the greatest number of women. 

There are three tenements licensed for home work, also under 
the jurisdiction of the State Department of Labor. 

At the present time women in restaurants do not come under 
the ten hour law and the Labor Department is endeavoring to 
have the law amended to include them. While a majority of 
the restaurants in this district are noon restaurants, there are 
many which remain open in the evening; employees of these 
places would benefit by the proposed change in the law. Sup- 
port of this legislation will serve not only the district but the 
State at large. 



CHAPTER V. 

CHILD WELFARE 

The subject of Child Welfare is at once the most serious and 
the most hopeful problem with which a community has to deal. 
Start the child on the right path and we need not worry about 
the man. 




A Little Mother 

School Attendance 

Our public school system is the agency upon which we de- 
pend to start children on this path, and it is therefore, of the 
greatest importance that we know that every child in this dis- 
trict finds his way into the school, and that the training which he 
receives there fits him for a life of usefulness. 

42 



43 

According to the census of 1910 there were in the district 
south of Liberty Street and West of Broadway, eight hundred 
and eight children from six to fourteen years of age, distributed 
as shown in the accompanying table. Of these eight hundred and 
eight children of school age, seven hundred and nineteen (eighty- 
eight per cent.) were reported as attending school, i.e., eighty- 
nifae, or twelve per cent, were not in school at that time. 



TABLE VI. CHILDREN OF SCHOOL AGE ENROLLED AT VARIOUS SCHOOLS SOUTH 

OF FULTON STREET, AND WEST OF BROADWAY 
SCHOOL CENSUS FIGURES. 



School 


6-7 


7-8 


8-9 


9-10 


10-11 


11-12 


12-13 


13-14 


14-15 


15-16 


Total 


Public 
Elementary 


44 


53 


52 


38 


39 


32 


39 


41 


28 


16 


382 


High School 


















1 


8 


9 


Other Schools 


56 


75 


81 


74 


50 


60 


55 


61 


41 


24 


577 


Not Attending 


93 


11 


7 


4 




1 




7 


9 


16 


148 


Total 


193 


139 


140 


116 


89 


93 


94 


109 


79 


64 


1116 



This condition seems to have improved since 1910, for accord- 
ing to the figures for 1913 furnished by the school census bu- 
reau, out of one thousand and fifty-two children between six and 
fifteen residing south of Fulton Street and west of Broadway 
in that year, one hundred and twenty-three (eleven per cent.) 
were not attending school, and ninety-three of these children 
were between the ages of six and seven. 

It is of importance to know not only the proportion of children 
enrolled, but also whether or not those enrolled are attending 
regularly. The Department of Education reports that there were 
sixty cases of truancy in the district last year, as follows : 

TABLE VII. ST. PETER'S PAR0CHL4L SCHOOL 



Number of Cases 


Hearings Before District 
Superintendent 


Disposition 


6 


2 


Placed on parole 


PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 29 


54 


4 


3 placed on parole 
1 taken to Court 



44 
Classes. 
Of equal importance with school attendance is what children 
are being taught in the schools. The large proportion of foreign 
born children, twenty-four per cent. (1910 census), demands that 
special provision be made for teaching English to foreigners, .and 
this need is being met at present by the Special "C" Class into 
which foreign children of all ages are placed until they can 
speak and understand English. This is the method in use 




; ■ 

■■" ■■ : .( : 'f : V: JffV'V*,' ■'; "■ "v? '"■;' Si.*; 

*¥■■' '■■■;■-,::■■'■■......,.,.. ; 



....r^ii 



throughout the city where large numbers of foreigners are found r 
and is doubtless the result of years of experiment on the part 
of the educational authorities. There are no classes for backward 
children. 

A very serious omission at Public School No. 29 is the lack 
of an open air class for anaemic children and those predisposed 
to tuberculosis. It was not possible to ascertain the number of 
children suspected of these conditions in the school, but with tu- 
berculosis so prevalent in the district, it is inevitable that many 
of the children should be in need of out-door treatment. 



45 

The classes in shop work begin to approach the kind of train- 
ing the boys in this district most need. Few of them remain in 
school after reaching sixteen years of age, and it is therefore of 
the greatest importance that the school should begin their train- 
ing along lines which will lead ultimately to the skilled trades 
and not to the unskilled. 





I 



A Scrap 



The Department of Health reports that daily morning inspec- 
tions are made ; and that routine class inspections, including ex- 
amination of teeth, are made once a month. All public schools 
in the city are visited each day by Board of Health nurses. 

The Superintendent of P. S. No. 29 reports that classes in 
manual training, domestic science, sewing, and similar pursuits 
are carried on in the different grades as follows: 

la-4a Raffia— Cord Work 

3a-7b Sewing 

7a-7b Boys; Shop Work 

7a-7b Girls; Cooking and Domestic Science 



CHAPTER VI. 
DELINQUENCY. 

Adults. 

The section being surveyed is included in District I of the 
Magistrates' Courts of the First Division. District I is bounded 
on the north by Canal, Bleeker, Division and Grand Streets, east 
and west by North and Hudson Rivers. 

A comparison of Manhattan and Bronx and District I, and the 
Survey District shows: 



TABLE VIII. POPULATION AND PERCENTAGE OF ARRESTS 



District 


Population* 


Total 

Arraignments 
In Court 


Per Cent, of 
Arraignments 
to Population 


Manhattan and Bronx. 

District 1 

Survey District 


2,762,522 
269,288 

6,441 


108,225 

11,671 

201 


3.9 
4.3 
3.1 



*(Population statistics are from 1910 Federal Census as compiled by Federation 
of Churches.) 

From Table VII. it will be seen that during 1913 there were 
fewer crimes committed south of Liberty Street and west of 
Broadway in proportion to population than in either District I. 
of the Magistrates Court of which it is a part, or in Manhattan 
and Bronx Boroughs combined. On the other hand, the pro- 
portion of major to minor offenses is high, 27% being misde- 
meanors or felonies. 

Considering the minor offences, disorderly conduct and intox- 
ication may be taken together since disorderly conduct is in many 
cases the result of intoxication. Seventy-six or over half of the 
minor offences were of this nature. 

Violation of the Sanitary Law and violation of Corporation 
Ordinance may also be considered together, since both are crimes 
resulting from ignorance rather than true criminal tendencies. 
These offenses are always prevalent where an ignorant for- 
eign population is found, and it is therefore not surprising to 

46 



47 

tind them making up the other half of the minor offenses. It is 
reasonable to believe that if it should be possible to carry out a 
plan of evening continuation classes, these offenses would be 
reduced. 

The following is a list of the offenses committed south of 
Liberty Street and West of Broadway from January 1, 1913 to 
December 31, 1913: 



TABLE IX. 



-OFFENCES COMMITTED SOUTH OF LIBERTY STREET AND WEST OF 
BROADWAY, JANUARY 1 TO DECEMBER 31, 1913 



I. -Felonies and Misdemeanors 


Number 


Per Cent. 


Larceny . 


17 

11 

6 

8 

4 
2 




Robbery 




Burglary 




Assault 




Felony 




Rape 




Other Felonies and Misdemeanors 


6 










Total . 


54 


27% 






1 1. -Minor Offenses 


Number 


Per Cent. 


Disorderly Conduct 


51 
46 
30 
15 




Violation of Sanitary Ordinance 




Violation of Corporation Ordinance 




Intoxication 




Other Minor Offenses 


5 








Total 


147 


73% 






Total All Cases 


Number 


Per Cent. 


Felonies and Misdemeanors 


54 
147 


27 


Minor Offenses 


73 






Total 


201 


100% 







We would also call to your attention the ages of those appear- 
ing before the courts last year. It will be noticed that in prac- 
tically all of the more serious offences the men under thirty pre- 
dominate. This is probably not an abnormal condition, but the 
fact that 60% of the disorderly persons were young men points 
to conditions which can and should be remedied. Two-thirds of 
those charged with violating city ordinances were over thirty and 
this bears out what was previously said in characterizing these 
offenses as the result of ignorance. 



48 



TABLE X, 



AGES OF OFFENDERS, 1913, SOUTH OF LIBERTY STREET AND WEST 
OF BROADWAY 



Offense 



Under 

20 
Years 



20-29 



30-39 



40 
and 
Over 



Total 



Disorderly Conduct 

Larceny 

Robbery 

Burglary 

Intoxication 

Violation, Corporation Ordinance 
Violation, Sanitary Ordinance. . . . 

Assault 

AllOthers 

Total 



24 
10 
7 
5 
5 
9 
14 
3 
4 



11 

3 

2 

1 

10 

15 

16 

2 

7 



12 



81 



67 



9 
1 



6 
16 
3 
6 



41 



51 

17 
11 

6 
15 
30 
46 

8 
17 



201 



Saloons. 

The chief cause of disorderly conduct is to be found in the 
very great number of cheap saloons in this section of the city. 
The study of saloons was made from Fulton Street south instead 
of from Liberty Street. 

There are ninety-four saloons at the present time south of 
Fulton Street and west of Broadway. 

These may 'be 1 classified as follows: 

First Class^Cafes not open after eight o'clock in the evening. 
Second Class — Saloons in which moral conditions are sat- 
isfactory. 

Third Class — Saloons in which conditions are disorderly or 
otherwise bad. 

Two night inspections were made in company with a rep- 
resentative of the Committee of Fourteen, and the results of 
these inspections were in general as follows: 

Saloons east of Greenwich Street were found to be closed. 
These appear therefore to cater only to the transient business 
population and may be disregarded. 

Saloons of the second class in which conditions appeared to 
be satisfactory were chiefly north of Liberty Street. Saloons 
here cater mainly to the market men from Washington Market, 
and although open in the evenings do not present serious prob- 
lems. 



49 

Saloons of class three are to be found mostly on lower Green- 
wich, Washington and West Streets. Many places deserve the 
name of dives rather than saloons and are a menace to the whole 
city. In three places women were found in the rear rooms and at 

West Street a passage way was found to connect the saloon 

with the rear tenement. The saloon was reputed to be a place of 
resort for immoral women. Inspection showed that the rear 
room was fitted up with several beds. At the time of inspection 
a woman was seen in the rear room of the saloon, but not in the 
tenement. It is said that it is impossible to rent apartments in 
this building because of the evil ssurroundings. 

Within the past six months, two saloons have been opened on 
Fulton Street directly opposite Trinity Parish House. Although 
no doubt the proprietors have taken the precaution not to locate 
within the area prohibited by law, it is certain that in granting 
licenses so near St. Paul's, the law has been violated in regard to 
both schools and churches in spirit, if not in letter. 

Dance Halls 

According to the Mayor's Bureau of Licenses all applications 
for the licensing of dance halls south of Liberty Street and west 
of Broadway have been denied. In spite of this, many so-called 
''Private Dance Halls" are in operation, and during the course of 
this investigation four such places were visited. In nearly every 
case the dance hall is situated directly over a saloon and drinks 
are served to the patrons from a bar at one corner of the hall. 

It is a Polish custom to give "wedding dances," and two of 
these were in progress when the inspection was made. Both were 
orderly when visited, although it is said to be frequently neces- 
sary to call the police to stop fights with which the "wedding 
dance" often terminates. 

During the early part of this summer two men were shot (one 
of whom died), at a "Benefit" given to raise bail for a pickpocket 
who had recently been arrested. This affair was held at what is 
known throughout the district as "The Tub of Blood." "The 
Battlefield," a place of like reputation, has also earned its name 
from a long series of such gun fights. 

The following is a list of the offenses which came before the 
Juvenile Court from the district during 1913. 



50 



TABLE XI. OFFENSES COMING BEFORE THE JUVENILE COURT OF NEW YORK CITY 

FROM DISTRICT SOUTH OF LIBERTY STREET AND WEST OF BROADWAY, 
JANUARY 1ST TO DECEMBER 31, 1913 : 



Place 



127 Cedar Street 
48 Greenwich Street 

48 Greenwich Street 
25 Washington Street 
19 Morris Street 

25 Washington Street 
22 Rector Street 

26 Washington Street 
26 Washington Street 
17 Rector Street 

1 Carlisle Street 

49 Washington Street 
55 Greenwich Street 
15 Washington Street 
37 Washington Street 
26 Rector Street 

19 Albany Street 
48 Washington Street 
31 Washington Street 
31 Washington Street 



Offense 



Improper Guardianship 

Witness 

Witness 

Improper Guardianship 

Improper Guardianship 

Disorderly Conduct 

Disorderly Conduct 

Disorderly Conduct 

Disorderly Conduct 

Petty Larceny 

Burglary 

Burglary 

Begging Transfer Tickets 

Disorderly Conduct 

Disorderly Conduct 

Disorderly Conduct 

Disorderly Conduct 

Disorderly Conduct 

Child Labor Law 

Child Labor Law 



Disposition 



Catholic Protectory 

Discharged 

Discharged 

Discharged 

Discharged 

Discharged 

Discharged 

Committed to Convent 

Committed to Convent 

Discharged 

Juvenile Asylum 

Catholic Protectory 

Fined $1.00 

Discharged 

Brooklyn Training School 

Discharged 

Discharged 

Discharged 

Discharged 

Discharged 



The majority of the above cases were discharged, but this does 
not necessarily mean that the offenders were innocent. Judges 
often discharge first offenders with a reprimand. 

The proper place to attack the problem of "Juvenile Delin- 
quency" is on the playground; in fact many offenses coming be- 
fore the Juvenile Court are really forms of play. When this dis- 
trict has a well equipped, well supervised playground, it need 
not be concerned about its juvenile delinquents. 



CHAPTER VII. 
Health 

The records of the Department of Health show that the streets 
south of Liberty and west of Broadway have an unusually high 
infant death rate. Nothing is more indicative of conditions than 
infant mortality. Varying in the years 1910 to 1913 from one 
death in every three babies born, to one in every five, the figures 
for this district bear mute testimony to the wretched conditions 
under which people here are living. 

It will be seen that from 321.0 in 1910 (321 deaths in every 
1,000 births) the infant death rate fell during 1911 and 1912 till 
it reached 169.5 in that year. In 1913 the rate increased to 232.7 
and in 1914 from January to June, before the beginning of the 
hot summer months to 142.8. 

During this period the infant death rate for the whole city 
was 125.0; 111.6; 105.3; 101.9; 92.2. 

In 1910 the rate for the whole city was one death to every eight 
babies born, and this has gradually been reduced to one in 
slightly less than ten (9.8) in 1913. 

During the same period the infant death rate in the district 
has fluctuated from one in three births to one in seven, but 
remaining always from 38% to 64% higher than the city at large. 

The following diagram gives a comparison with the whole city 
for 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, and six months of 1914. 



TABLE XII. INFANT MORTALITY STATISTICS HEALTH DEPARTMENT RECORDS, 

1910-1914, BLOCKS SOUTH OF LIBERTY STREET AND WEST OF BROADWAY 



Date 


Living 
Births 


Deaths Under 
One Year 


Infant Death 

Rate Per 

1000 This 

District 


Infant Death 

Rate N. Y. 

City 


1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 
1914 Jan. 1 
to June 30 


190 
275 
236 
288 
147 


61 
50 
40 
67 
21 


321.0 
181.9 
169.5 
232.7 
142.8 


125.0 
111.6 
105.3 
101.9 
92.2 



51 



52 
The New York Milk Committee. 

The great fluctuation within the district from 1910 to 1914 
may be explained in part by the following facts : 

During 1910 and previous to that year no special agency was 
interested in infant mortality in the district; the rate at this 
time was at its highest, 321.0 per 1,000 births. Early in 1911 a 
milk station was established at 47 Washington Street by the New 
York Milk Committee as part of the campaign to reduce infant 
mortality, and by the end of that year, the death rate had fallen 




Interpreters at the Health Centre 



to 181.9, a reduction of 56%. The effects of this year were still 
felt in 1912 and although the station was closed when the city 
took over this work, the death rate continued to drop until it 
reached 169.5. 

The result of the removal of the milk station is seen in the 
figures for 1913 which rose to 232.7. 



53 

COMPARISON BETWEEN INFANT DEATH RATES FOR NEW YORK CITY AND THE 

STREETS SOUTH OF LIBERTY STREET AND WEST BROADWAY, 

JANUARY 1ST, 1910 JULY 1ST, 1914 



321.0 



232.7 i — 



105.3 




CiewYoT!.* Citv 



1910 

No Baby 

welfare 

agency 

in the 

District 



1911 



1912 



during 1st 
7 months 



Eff milk° fa StationDis- YEAR 

station continued ~ Health Centre 

begun Aug. 1st 



1913 1914Jan. 1st, July 1st 

No baby agency 



Effects of the 
Health Centre 



The Washington Street Health Centre of the New York Milk 
Committee at 119 Washington Street was opened in August 1913, 
but as the work did not get well under way until late in the year, 
it is too early to look for results from this experiment. It may be 
mentioned in passing that it was because of the abnormally high 
infant death rate that the New York Milk Committee chose this 
district of the city, rather than any other, in which to establish 
its experimental centre. 

Two reasons are usually given for a high infant death rate. 
First. Ignorance on the part of the mother. Second. Bad milk. 

In 1911 New York established a net-work of free milk stations 
throughout the city, and during that year infant deaths fell to 
111.6 per thousand births, as against an average of 135.8 for the 
preceding five years, the total deaths being the lowest of any 
year since 1903. The city is now committed to a policy of milk 
stations, and at present there are fifty-five in New York. 



54 

Milk stations do much more than supply pure milk; they are 
centres of advice and education for the mothers of the district 
in which they are located. Nurses from the milk depots are con- 
stantly visiting families to give instruction to mothers, and treat- 
ment to sick babies, and the reduction of infant mortality since 
1910 has been due as much to their efforts as to wholesome milk. 

Since the withdrawal of the Washington Street Station, this 
district has been without a milk depot. The nearest stations are 
at 122 Mulberry Street and 38 McDougal Street; in either of 
which cases the mother must spend ten cents carfare plus eight 
cents for the bottle of milk, the absurdity of which is obvious. 

But the real index to a high infant death rate is not bad milk, 
but ignorance. Where mothers know how to feed and care for 
their babies, the death rate is sure to be low. Pamphlets issued 
by the Board of Health are not printed in the languages used 
in the district, thus depriving the inhabitants of an educational 
medium of great value. 

Much is to be hoped from such work as is carried on by the 
doctors and nurses of the Health Centre at 119 Washington 
Street, previously mentioned. Their aim is to find the babies be- 
fore they need medical care, and to show mothers how to keep 
them well. For this purpose two nurses are constantly canvassing 
the district, giving advice and help and reporting cases of sick- 
ness. However, this work will probably be withdrawn during 
the coming year, which will leave but one nurse (Henry Street 
Settlement) doing intensive work in the district. 

It is true that nurses from the New York Dispensary, Board 
of Health and other agencies visit patients here as cases under 
their jurisdiction occur, but they are not definitely connected 
with this district, nor doing any general preventive or con- 
structive work for the section as a whole. Colonel William 
Jay points out in his report to Trinity Church Association on 
the Provident Dispensary for 1913, "Prevention is the keynote 
of modern medicine," and the health centre is surely sounding 
the note. 

The New York Milk Committee, following the line of campaign 
adopted in securing milk stations in 1911, is endeavoring to prove 
to the city the feasibility of the "Health Centre." If the Wash- 
ington Street experiment proves a success, which seems certain, 



55 

the city will in all probability take over the work and extend it 
throughout New York. 

This, however, is sure to be a slow process and in the interim, 
the district will be deprived of a most valuable agency, attempt- 
ing to preserve its infant life. 

There can be but one result of the removal of the "Health 
Centre." Conditions being left practically as in 1910, the death 
rate will again be high, as it was in that year. 




The Health Centre Gets Its Patients Before They Are Sick 

All agencies should co-operate with the New York Milk Com- 
mittee to secure the continuance of this work and its adoption 
by the city. The district has no greater single need than work 
of the kind now being done by the Experimental Health Centre. 



Tuberculosis. 

The records of the Health Department were examined for 
tuberculosis and in these figures we see the effects of bad hous- 
ing and over-crowded conditions. There were 270 cases of tu- 



56 

berculosis reported during 1913 from Liberty Street south to 
Battery Place. Practically all of these occurred in the houses 




Hall Sinks Spread Disease 



on lower Greenwich, Washington and West Streets. Within one 
square block, alone, 63 cases were reported. Many of the houses 



57 

have a record of years of disease and are a menace to the com- 
munity. During 1913, 38 persons died of the disease. Of the 
270 cases reported during 1913, 69 were reported "not found." 
This does not mean that these did not exist, but that they could 
not be located at. the time of investigation. This number was un- 
doubtedly made up largely of the district's transient population, 
i.e., newly arrived immigrants, homeless men and sailors. 

The following table shows the number of houses and the num- 
ber of cases of tuberculosis reported in each in 1913. 




Tuberculosis Cases Reported in the District In 1913. 
Each Dot Represents One Case 



58 

TABLE XIII. SUMMARY 

148 Houses reported 1 case of tuberculosis during 1913 
28 " " 2 cases 

6 "3 " 

6 "4 " 

2 "5 " 

o « "7 " 

192 

The tuberculosis situation in this district is made much worse 
by the ignorance of the people here. Charitable workers find 
their efforts defeated at every turn because the afflicted man or 
woman cannot be persuaded to take the necessary treatment for 
himself or precautions to protect the rest of the family. As a 
result, the invalid remains at home, disregarding instructions as 
to proper habits, and before long the children have contracted 
the disease. 

Nearly half of the cases in this district known to the Associa- 
tion for Improving the Condition of the Poor, became dependent 
because of tuberculosis or gave the disease as a contributing cause. 

The following case, known to this society for many years, 
during which the sisters at the Mission House of Trinity Church 
Association have also been interested in the family, shows the 
conditions found. A summary of the record follows: 

4 'Man, wife and illegitimate child, a girl. The woman's sister 
and an eighteen months old baby share with the family two small, 
badly ventilated rooms in one of the worst houses on Washington 
Street. Man in second stages of tuberculosis, sputum positive. 
Woman expecting confinement in four months. Home disorderly 
and dirty. Woman cares for sister's baby while sister is working, 
is also employed as office cleaner at $5.00 per week. 

"Arrangements made for man to enter hospital. Situation inten- 
sified on second visit, as baby of woman's sister had fallen down 
stairs and died from broken neck. Baby not insured. Boy born 
to woman in August. Nurse called regularly and had to over- 
come many traditions relative to woman's proper care of herself. 
Man considerably improved and hoped to be discharged from hos- 
pital in September. Left hospital before time, however, against 
doctor's advice. Nurse urged him to re-enter as he was unfit for 
work and a menace to the home. Room in state of awful filth 
and disorder. New baby suffering from improper feeding. Man 



59 

secured work on docks, but had to give it up for lighter employ- 
ment. Obtained work on wagon at $7.00 a week. Girl anaemic 
and should be examined. Man insists on sleeping with baby. 
Nurse found him feeding baby out of his own cup with spoon 
he had been using. He is now so weak that he only works occa- 
sionally. Up to the present time the Board of Health refuses to 
forcibly remove him from his home. " 

No one can doubt what the future history of this family is 
to be. Ignorance, low wages and evil surroundings doomed it 
before it became known to the charitable agencies. 

The travelling tuberculosis exhibit has never been in this dis- 
trict. It is strongly urged that the Tuberculosis Committee be 
aided in securing temporary quarters for this educational medium. 
The Tuberculosis Committee has already signified its willing- 
ness to co-operate in any campaign undertaken to minimize tuber- 
culosis in this section of the city. 

Contagious Diseases. 

A summary of the Contagious Diseases reported to the De- 
partment of Health during 1913 in this district is as follows : 



TABLE XIV. 

Measles 57 

Scarlet Fever 19 

Typhoid Fever 5 

Diphtheria 34 

115 



, 






■'■'".". '.. 


■■■[ 




S 1 ^^*^ 


"-F ■* 




, 1 



A p p e n d i x 

SOCIAL HISTORIES 
of 818 FAMILIES 




COMPILED AND TABULATED FROM THE RECORDS OF 

WASHINGTON STREET HEALTH CENTRE 

AUGUST 1st, 1914 



61 



TABLE XVd. ROOMS PER DWELLING IN RELATION TO NUMBER OF OCCUPANTS 



NUMBER OF FAMILIES 



Table No. 1 


Number of Persons per Family Including Boarders and Lodgers 


Rooms 






















Over 




Per Family 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


10 


Total 


1 


1 


20 


11 


13 


1 


1 












47 


2 




66 


126 


113 


90 


43 


is 


9 


2 








467 


3 


2 


18 


34 


36 


43 


34 


25 


17 


1 


1 






211 


4 




9 


14 


9 


15 


10 


10 


5 


3 


2 






77 


5 












1 


1 


3 










5 


6 




1 


1 










1 






3 


6 


7 










1 












1 


2 


8 






1 


















1 


9 
















1 








1 


10 


























Over 10 






















1 


1 


Total Families 


3 


114 


187 


171 


150 


89 


54 


36 


6 


3 


5 


818 



TABLE XVb. TOILET FACILITIES IN RELATION TO NUMBER OF FAMILIES AND 

NUMBER OF PERSONS PER FAMILY USING SAME 





NUMBER 


OF FAMILIES 
















Table 2 


Number of Persons per Family Including 
Boarders and Lodgers 




1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


Over 
10 


Individual Apartmen 
Common or Between 
Individual Hall 


ts 




4 
14 


4 
32 


8 

18 

2 

84 

1 

10 

14 

16 

6 

1 

6 

5 


4 
27 

1 
67 

1 
12 
8 
8 
8 
2 
11 
1 


4 
10 

1 
45 

1 
8 
4 
5 
3 


3 

7 

'28 


1 
2 

21 


"i 

i 

3 


1 
"2 


1 


Apartments. 


1 




Common Hall 


1 

"i 


48 

"'6 

11 
9 
5 

'ii 

3 


72 

2 
13 
16 
19 

7 

'ii 

8 


4 








Ground 
1 
2 

• : I 
5 
Ton Floor 




Flights Up of 

Families Using 

Yard Toilets 


3 
5 

4 
2 


5 
2 
5 


1 






• 














7 
1 


2 










Toilets Unknown 
























Total Families 


3114187171 


150 


89 


54 


36 


6 


3 5 



62 



Total 
Fami- 
lies 


CO 


rff^rH©a>rrCOCO 

r-i oc r^ in oo in ro 


CO 


in 


oo 

00 


Fami- 
lies 
Income 

Un- 
known 


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CO 


6" 


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§ 


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CO 




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rr 


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00 


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1* 


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co co co oo in 






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to 


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to 

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CM 


to 




in CT) <o to CM 






00 
CM 


se- 


r- 1 -* O) O) in rH 






CO 


rf 


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CO 


Total Number 
of Persons Per 
Family Includ- 
ing Boarders 
and Lodgers 




N M * Ifl (O N » a 


c 


o 
u 

6 


.22 
1 

rS 

2 



63 








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69 














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69 














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to 


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64 



TABLE XVe. OCCUPATION OF MOTHER IN RELATION TO REGULARITY OF 

EMPLOYMENT 



Enumeration 

of 

Mothers' 

Occupation 


Dead 


Un- 
known 


House- 
work 
Only 


Mother 

Working 

Only 


Both 
Parents 
Working 


| 

Steady Steady 

Employment Employment 


Yes 


No 


Yes 


No 


Housework Only 

Laundress... 

Embroiderer 


5 


6 


293 


"i 

2 

U 
13 
63 
3 
3 
2 
1 
2 

'3 

1 


'i 

3 

'i 

] 

37 

37 

296 

10 

4 

1 

3 

2 

4 

1 

'i 
'2— 


'i 

'9 

3 
2 

'i 


'i 

1 

'i 


'i 

2 
2 

1 

1 

32 

18 

349 

4 

7 

3 

"2 
3 

'i 

1 
1 
2 
3 

1 


'2 






Cigarette Maker. . . ... 

Kimona Factory 

Peddler 


17 
31 


Office Cleaner 

Janitress 


10 


Cook 








Grocery Clerk 

Factory 


"i 


Silk Weaver 

Saloon 

Servant.. . Eiu.iiiu.ii .„,. 
Storekeeper 




Midwife 






Total All Occupations. 








293 


409 


16 


3 


434 


61 



TABLE XVf. CONJUGAL CONDITION OF MOTHERS OF 818 FAMILIES 



Single 


Married 


Widow 


Deserted 


Dead 


Unknown 


Total 
Mothers 




703 


68 


36 


5 


6 


818 



65 



TABLE XVg. NATIONALITY 





Number 


Per Cent. 


Austro-Hungarians 


341 
260 
34 
33 
19 
11 
7 
54 
36 
23 


41.7 


Syrians 


318 


Russian 


4.2 


Irish 


4.0 


Greek 


2.3 


Polak 


1.3 


Italian . 


0.9 


American 


6.6 


Unknown. 

Others* 


4.4 
2.8 






Total 


818 


100.0 







*Other Nationalities include Canadians, Germans, English, French, Scotch and 
Roumanians. 



TABLE XVh. RELATION OF FATHER'S USE OF ALCOHOL TO MOTHER'S USE 



Fathers' Use 


Number 

of 
Fathers 


Mothers' Use of Alcoholic Stimulants 


of Alcoholic 
Stimulants 


None 


Moder- 
ate 


Exces- 
sive 


Mother 
Dead 


Un- 
known 


Total 


None 


260 

419 

56 

68 

15 


259 

219 

16 

46 

5 


1 

199 

30 

13 

4 


io 

4 


'i 

"i 


5' 

2 


260 


Moderate 

Excessive 

Father Dead — 
Unknown 


419 
56 
68 
15 


Total 


818 


545 


247 


14 


5 


7 


818 



66 



TABLE XV?.- 



-OCCUPATION OF FATHER IN RELATION TO REGULARITY OF HOME 
AND OTHER EMPLOYMENT 



Enumeration of 

Fathers' 

Occupation 










No 


Father 

Working 

Only 


Both 
Parent? 
Working 


Employed at Home 
Yes No 


Dead 


Un- 
known 


Occupa- 
tion 


Steady 
Employment 


Steady 
Employment 




Yes 


No 


Yes 


No 




68 


AS 


26 


io 

13 
5 
7 
2 
2 

'3 

1 
1 

13 
1 
1 

44 
4 
1 
6 
1 
5 
7 
3 

2 

1 

2 

30 

18 

1 

2 

4 

1 

15 

13 

1 

4 

*4 

32 
2 

'i 

2 
4 
1 

1 
1 

'i 
l 
l 


i 

2 

1 

8 

*8 
6 
9 

4i 

3 

4 

'3 
2 

i 

2 

'2 

100 

37 

1 

'9 
1 
8 
6 

'6 
2 
2 
^2 
102 
1 
2 
1 
1 

'i 

8 

'i 

2 

1 

2 
'2 


'3 

1 

i 

'i 

2 

i 

'3 


i 
i 

'2 


"l 

13 
5 
9 
2 
6 
4 
4 
1 
2 

16 
2 
1 

29 
5 
3 
6 
1 
5 
8 
1 

'3 
1 

1 

37 

51 

2 

2 

12 

\1 

15 

1 

2 

1 

3 

1 

119 

3 

2 

1 

1 

1 

3 

10 

2 
3 

1 
3 
1 
1 


'i 
















I 




I 




5 


Engineer 


'4 




2 




7 


Express Agent 




Driver 

Printer 


4 






Peddler 


54 


Restaurant Proprietor. 
Butcher. 


'i 

4 






Kimono Factory 

Lace Merchant 

Saloon Proprietor 


3 

1 


Pipe Fitter 


1 








1 




93 


Waiter 


4 


Elevated Railroad. . . . 

Watchman 

Fireman 


'i 

2 


Grocery Clerk 

Clerk..' 


3 

4 




8 


Builder 


1 


Painter 

Brakeman. .......... 

Porter 


3 

1 

15 






Baker 




Teacher 

Newspaper Agent. , . . . 
Checker 




Grocery Store .... 


2 


Tailor 


1 


Restaurant Manager. . 
Storekeeper 




Street Cleaner 

Office Cleaner 

Machinist 




Miner. 


2 










Total Occupation. . . 


68 


48 


26 


275 


401 


12 


4 


430 


230 



67 







en 




























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73 Q 



INDEX 



Adult delinquency 46 

Agencies co-operating xi 

Aliens (see Immigrants) 

Appendix 60 

Arrests in District 46 

Austro-Hungarians 18 

B 

Barge Office 19 

Basements 8 

Baths, 

Floating 33 

Pollution of 33 

Battery Park 29 

Bureau of Industries and Immi- 
gration, Report of 20 

Bureau of Licenses. 49 

C 

Census 1910 15 

Child, 

Delinquency 50 

Welfare 42 

Children, Number of 27 

Church yards, 

St. Paul's 35 

Trinity 35 

Classes 44 

"C" Classes . . 44 

Evening 27 

Special ziS, 45 

Civics 27 

Open Air 44 

Color Statistics 15 

Committee, 

Men's iii 

Survey , xii 

Contents, Table of v 

Contributors, List of iv 

Courts, 

Juvenile 50 

Magistrates 46 

D 
Dance Halls 49 



Death, 

Infant 51 

Rate 51 

Delinquency 46 

Adult 46 

Child 50 

Departments, 

Education 43 

Health 45 

Parks 29 

Tenement House 2, 3, .8 

Diagrams, List of vii 

Diseases, Contagious 59 

District, Map of xiv 

Boundaries xiii 

Dwellings, one room, two rooms, 
etc 10 

E 

Education (see Child Welfare) ... 26 

Immigrant 26 

Public School 42 

Vocational 28, 45 

Employment, 

Agencies 38 

Casual 37 

European war, Effects of 25 

F 

Factories 40 

Family history, 818 tabulated 60 

Fire escapes, vertical ladder 7 

Foreword ix 

H 
Health 51 

Centre, Washington Street 53 

Department of 45, 57, 58, 59 

Hotels, Immigrant 22 

Houses, 

Boarding 22 

Boarding, Immigrant 22 

Boarding, Sailors 12 

"Border Line" 11 

Furnished Room 11 

Lodging 12 



68 



69 



Housing 1 

"Octavia Hill Plan" 12 

Hungarians-Austro 18 

I 

Illiterates 27 

Illustrations, List of vii 

Immigrant, 

Boarding houses 22 

Education of 26 

Guide 22 

Homes 22 

Homes, Usefulness of 22 

Number of 24 

National groups 15 

Immigration 15 

Present situation 25 

Industrial, 

Conditions 36 

Training 28, 45 

Infants, Death of 51 

Information, Bureau of 25 

Inspection, 

Health 45 

Medical 45 

Introduction xiii 

Irish • . 19 

L 

Labor 36 

Children 41 

Men 36 

Unskilled 36 

Women 38 

Land overcrowding 7 

Licenses 48, 49 

Lodging Houses 12 

Lots, 

Unimproved 61 

Use of 31 

M 

Map of District xiv 

Medical Inspection 45 

Men's Committee, List of iii 

Mission House 58 

N . 

Nativity Statistics 15 

New York Milk Committee 52 

Nurses 45, 44 



Occupation 36, 38 

Office cleaners 38 

Peddlers, others 36 

Offenses, Committed in District.. 47 



Parentage Statistics 15 

Park Department 31 

Parks and Playgrounds Association 31 

Letter of 32 

Playgrounds 29 

Attendance at 30 

Unimproved lots as 31 

Police 20 

Special 20 

Population .-'. 15 

Classified of District 15 

Provident Dispensary 54 



Races 15 

Predominating 15 

Slavic, Syrian, Irish, others.. 18, 20 

Recommendations, Housing 12 

Records, 818 families tabulated... 60 

Recreation 29 

Rent 36 

Rooms, 

Number of occupants 10, 11 

Number of families in 11 

Overcrowding of 8 

Unventilated 11 



Saloons 48 

Classified 48 

Sanitary conditions 8 

School, 

Attendance . 42 

Day 43 

Enrollment 43 

Evening 27 

Public 43 

St. Peter's Parochial 43 

Classes 27, 44 

Sinks, Hall 5 

Speech, Classification 18 

Social Centre 34 



70 



Social Histories 60 

St. Paul's Churchyard 35 

St. Paul's Chapel 35 

St. Peter's Parochial School 43 

Stables 8 

Statistics, 

Color 15 

Nativity 15 

Parentage 15 

Steamship Companies 20 

Delays of 21 

Exchange 21 

Facilities 21 

Orders over issued 21 

Survey, 

Committee on xii 

Purposes of xiii 

Syrians 19 

T 

Tables, List of viii 

Tenement, 

Bakeries 8 

Stables 8 

Tenement House Department. . .2, 8 

Tenements 1 

Height of 3 

Number of 1 

Rear 7 

Worst in city 1 



Theatre 34 

Toilets 3 

Yard 3 

Training 28 

Industrial 28 

Transfer Companies 22 

Transportation 22 

Difficulties 23 

Orders over issued 20 

Traveler's Aid 22 

Trinity Church, 

Association 54 

Men's Committee iii, ix 

Mission House 58 

Provident Dispensary 54 

Churchyard 35 

Tuberculosis 55 

V 

Ventilation 2, 11 

Vocational, 

Education 28 

Guidance 28 

W 

Wages 36 

War, Effect of. European 25 

Washington Street Health Centre, 

3, 5, 18, 36, 37, 38, 52, 60 
Woman's Work 39 



